Climate Activists Who Threw Soup at van Gogh Painting Are Changing Tactics

Just Stop Oil, the British environmental activist group known for attention-grabbing protests — including throwing tomato soup at famous artworks and spraying orange powder on Stonehenge — said it was ending such actions after a final protest in London next month.

The group said on Thursday that it had achieved its primary goal of preventing new oil and gas licensing in Britain, and would soon be regrouping to plan its next phase of actions.

“We achieved what we set out to achieve,” James Skeet, a spokesman for the group, said in an interview.

Here’s what to know.

The activists are known for attention-grabbing protests.

Just Stop Oil activists made headlines beginning in 2022 for: throwing tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers,” gluing themselves to John Constable’s “The Hay Wain,” and smashing the glass that protected Diego Velázquez’s “Rokeby Venus.”

The group has said that it used the tactics to convey the urgency of the climate crisis, and draw attention to the political and social changes needed to tackle it. The group has noted that its actions have not damaged the masterpieces, and that the works were specifically chosen because they were protected by glass. But critics have argued that some of the works’ centuries-old frames were harmed.